Producer Vows Music Comes First On ‘Hard Rock Live’

The hottest acts on the entertainment scene? Marketing alliances, cross-promotions and product tie-ins, of course.

All of them play starring roles on a certain new TV series.

“Some of the artists we talk to say, ‘You’ve got “Hard Rock Live Presented by Pontiac Sunfire Distributed by Warner Bros. on VH1” - where do we fit in?”’

The speaker is executive producer Robert Small, who has a reassuring comeback for performers as well as viewers: On “Hard Rock Live Presented by Pontiac Sunfire” (the actual full title), it’s the music that’s really top-billed.

“This is going to be very much a music lover’s show,” pledges Small, whose weekly live-in-concert series premiered on the VH1 cable channel Sunday at 5 p.m. with the triple-platinum-selling singer Jewel (encoring five hours later, in addition to twice more during the week).

“We’re not trying to appeal to one particular genre of music,” he adds. “The sensibility is very much a throwback to the way music shows used to be done: ‘Shindig’ or ‘Midnight Special’ would have some classic rock ‘n’ roll, some new rock ‘n’ roll, some R&B, some country.”

Indeed, the slate of headliners in the weeks to come include such varied performers as Simply Red and Maxwell on April 6; Mary Chapin Carpenter and Shawn Colvin, April 13; Robert Palmer and Cheap Trick, April 20; and, with Paula Cole on April 27, rock elder Lou Reed in a sizzling set.

With 22 segments scheduled to air weekly over the next year, Small, who created the acoustic ground-breaker “Unplugged” for MTV, hopes “Hard Rock Live” will become appointment viewing for the music-loving crowd.

Small bookends each act with documentarylike footage of the artists backstage.

A Web site is an inevitable part of the package.

On your computer you can click to hardrocklive.msn.com for chat and “virtual backstage access” for the concert.

But the heart and soul of this whole enterprise is the concert, captured on tape at a midtown Manhattan studio before an audience of about 300.

“It’s a very intimate environment,” says Small.

“Watching the show, you hopefully get the feeling that anything can happen.”